Urban legend

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For the 1998 movie, see Urban Legend (film). For the T.I. album, see Urban Legend
(album).

An urban legend or urban myth is a kind of modern folklore consisting of stories often
thought to be factual by those circulating them. (The term is often used with a meaning
similar to that of the expression "apocryphal story"). Urban legends are not necessarily
untrue, but they are often false, distorted, exaggerated, or sensationalized. Despite the
name, a typical urban legend does not necessarily originate in an urban setting. The term
is designed to differentiate them from traditional folklore in preindustrial times.

Urban legends are sometimes repeated in news stories and, in recent years, distributed by
e-mail. People frequently allege that such tales happened to a "friend of a friend"—so
often, in fact, that "friend of a friend", or "FOAF", has become a commonly used term
when recounting this type of story.

The urban legend phenomena are well-known in other languages. In the Netherlands, for
example, a tale about monkey meat gave rise to the term "broodje aap verhalen" (i.e.,
monkey sandwich stories).

Some urban legends have survived a long time, evolving only slightly over the years, as
in the case of the story of a woman killed by spiders nesting in her elaborate hairdo.
Newer legends tend to reflect modern circumstances, like the story of people ambushed,
anaesthetized and waking up minus one kidney, which was surgically removed for
transplantation.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Origins
• 2 Structure
• 3 Propagation and belief
• 4 Other terminology
• 5 Documenting urban legends
• 6 Examples
• 7 See also
o 7.1 Topics of urban legends
• 8 External links

• 9 References
 [edit] Origins
The first study of the concept now called "urban legend" seems to be Edgar Morin's La
Rumeur d'Orléans (in French) in 1969.

Jan Harold Brunvand, professor emeritus of English at the University of Utah in the
United States, used the term "urban legend" in print as early as 1979 in a book review
appearing in the Journal of American Folklore 92:362. Even at that time, researchers
were writing about the phenomenon for a long time, but with varying terminology.

Brunvand used his collection of legends, The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban
Legends & Their Meanings to make two points: first, that legends, myths and folklore do
not occur exclusively to so-called primitive or traditional societies, and second, that one
could learn much about urban and modern culture by studying such tales. Brunvand has
since published a series of similar books, and is credited as the first to use the term vector
(inspired by the concept of a biological vectors) to describe a person or entity passing on
an urban legend.

[edit] Structure
Many urban legends are framed as complete stories, with plot and characters. Urban
legends often resemble a proper joke, especially in the manner of transmission, but are
much darker in tone and theme.

The compelling appeal of a typical urban legend are its elements of mystery, horror, fear
or humor. Many urban legends are presented as warnings or cautionary tales, while others
might be more aptly called "widely dispersed misinformation", such as the erroneous
belief that a college student will automatically pass all courses in a semester if one's
roommate commits suicide.[1] While such "facts" may not have the narrative elements of
traditional urban legend, they are nevertheless conveyed from person to person with the
typical elements of horror, humor or caution.

Much like some folk tales of old, there are urban legends dealing with unexplained
phenomena such as phantom apparitions.

[edit] Propagation and belief

Many urban legends depict horrific crimes, contaminated foods or other situations which
if true, might affect a lot of people. Anyone believing such stories might feel compelled
to warn loved ones.

A person might also pass on noncautionary information simply because it is funny or

interesting. Many urban legends are essentially extended jokes, told as if they were true
events. In some cases they may have originated as pure jokes, personalized by a
subsequent teller to add point and force.
Many urban legends, like tall tales in general, contain a grain of truth. The urban legend
that Coca-Cola developed the drink Fanta to sell in Nazi Germany without public
backlash originated as the actual tale of German Max Keith. He invented the drink and
ran Coca-Cola's operations in Nazi Germany during World War II.[2]

Some urban legends have been devised by parents who wish to scare their children into
obedience. Such stories often depict someone (usually a child) acting in a disagreeable
manner, only to wind up hurt, dead, or in trouble.

People sometimes take urban legends to be true instead of recognizing them as tall tales
or unsubstantiated rumors because of the way they are told. The teller of an urban legend
may claim it happened to a friend, which serves to personalize and enhance the power of
the narrative. Since people, unconsciously or otherwise, often exaggerate, conflate or edit
stories when telling them, urban legends can evolve over time.

[edit] Other terminology

Some people use the term "urban myth" instead of "urban legend". Brunvand feels that
"urban legend" is less stigmatizing because "myth" is commonly used to describe things
that are widely accepted as untrue. The more academic definitions of myth usually refer
to a supernatural tale involving gods, spirits, the origin of the world, and so forth.

The term "urban myth" is preferred in some languages such as Spanish, where
conventional coinage is "mito urbano" rather than "leyenda urbana." In French, urban
legends are usually called "rumeurs d'Orléans" ("Orleans' rumours") after Edgar Morin's
work.

Some scholars prefer the term 'contemporary legend' to highlight those tales that
originated relatively recently. This is true for all periods in history; for instance, an
eighteenth-century pamphlet alleging that a woman was tricked into eating the ashes of
her lover's heart would be a contemporary legend with respect to the eighteenth century.

The main scholarly association on the subject is called The International Society for
Contemporary Legend Research, and its journal is titled Contemporary Legend.

[edit] Documenting urban legends

The advent of the Internet has facilitated the proliferation of urban legends. At the same
time, however, it has allowed more efficient investigation of this social phenomenon.

Discussing, tracking and analyzing urban legends has become a popular pursuit. It is the
topic of a thriving Usenet newsgroup, alt.folklore.urban, and several web pages, most
notably snopes.com.
The United States Department of Energy has a service called Hoaxbusters that deals with
all sorts of computer-distributed hoaxes and legends.

A television series, MythBusters, tries to prove or disprove urban legends by attempting

to reproduce them.

[edit] Examples
One well-known modern urban legend depicts a person who attempted to dry a wet
poodle in a microwave oven, only to kill it. Another legend depicts what is known as The
Vanishing Hitchhiker, while another poses that alligators dwell in New York City's
sewers, where they grow to enormous size after being flushed down the toilet by
dissatisfied pet owners.

Few urban legends can be traced to their actual origins, exceptions to which include the
The Submarine, the Steam tunnel incident and "Gloomy Sunday", the tale of the so-called
Hungarian suicide song.

Many urban legends revolve around consumer products and their perceived danger. One
such urban legend depicts deaths caused by ingesting Pop Rocks candy mixed with soda,
as they cause the stomach to explode. In reality, there is nothing dangerous about the
products either separate or together, as the fizzing in Pop Rocks and soda are both caused
by carbon dioxide gas.

Other urban legends are rooted in racism and anti-Semitism. For example, a common
urban legend in the Middle East depicts Jews drinking the blood of Christian children.
Variations of the myth depict the baking of babies' blood into holiday pastries.[1]

[edit] See also

• Conventional wisdom
• Conspiracy theory
• Curses
• Drug urban legends
• Faxlore
• Folk etymology
• Ghost tour
• Gossip
• Haunted Hollywood
• Haunted house
• Haunting
• Hoax
• Internet phenomenon
• Legend tripping
• List of allegedly haunted locations
 • Mostly True Stories, a TLC program about urban legends
• meme
• moral panic
• MythBusters
• Mythology
• Old wives' tale
• Organ theft
• Scientific skepticism
• The Straight Dope
• Thomas Crapper as "inventor" of the flush toilet
• Urban Legend, a horror film inspired by urban legends
• Urban Legends Reference Pages, also known as the Snopes website

[edit] Topics of urban legends

• Barometer question
• Li Qing Yuen A long lived Chinese sage often cited by sellers of herbal medicine,
for whom no documented record exists.
• Fan death (South Korea)
• Great Wall of China (re: visibility from space)
• Coriolis effect (re: toilets/ bathtubs flowing in opposite direction below the
equator)
• Water-fuelled car & gasoline pill
• Oak Island-Alleged buried treasure but see article sections "Early
History";"Documented History"; & "History or Legend"
• Chase Vault-Legendary alleged unexplained moving of coffins but see article
section "Origins of Story"
• John Wesley Hardin -legendary killer but see article section "Hardin and
unconfirmed claims"
• Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine -legendary lost mine but see article sections "Stories
About the Mine" & "The Historical Jacob Waltz"
• Bermuda Triangle-Legendary alleged unexplained mystery of vanishing ships and
planes but see article section "Kusche's The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved".
• The Little Girl - a country song based on an unconfirmed urban legend
• Lake Bodom murders - teenagers on camping trip get butchered by monster-like
character